Matt Lopez Latinx Drama ‘Promised Land’ Handed Pilot Order At ABC

Matt Lopez’s Latinx family drama Promised Land is the latest hourlong project to secure a pilot order at ABC.

Previously known as American Heritage, the project is an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley.

ABC bought the project pre-emptively with a put-pilot commitment last year.

Lopez, who has written feature films including Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Race to Witch Mountain, writes and exec produces. Adam Kolbrenner of Lit Entertainment Group (Raised by Wolves) also exec produces.

ABC Signature is the studio.

2021 ABC Pilots & Series Orders

Lopez created the NBCUniversal International drama series Gone, starring Chris Noth, which aired on WGN America in the U.S. He also is adapting Helen Cresswell’s young-adult novel Moondial into an ambitious time-travel drama for Fulwell 73. On the feature side, he is writing a new Father of the Bride movie for Warner Bros. revolving around a Latinx family, a first for the franchise.

It comes after the Disney-owned network handed drama pilot orders to Queens, a drama about a 90s hip hop group from Zahir McGhee; Epic, from the team behind Once Upon a Time; National Parks from Yellowstone star Kevin Costner, The Flash’s Aaron Helbing and author Jon Baird; and Sam Esmail’s procedural Acts of Crime.

Lopez is repped by Adam Kolbrenner’s Lit Entertainment Group and attorney Melissa Rogal.